San Ildefonso Polychrome Jar
by Cavan Gonzales, San Ildefonso Pueblo
Cavan Gonzales (right) with Friends of the ASM Collections members (left to right) Arnold Roland, Doreen Burbank, Lynn Spivey and Doris Roland
Description: Hand-built and painted, traditionally fired pottery. The shape is traditional and resembles the shape of Black Mesa. Traditional squash blossom designs.
About this Award: This special acquisition award is open to all works on display at the Fair; they need not be entered in the Friday competition to win. Art works winning acquisition awards become part of the museum's permanent collections. They are chosen for their technique and artistry as well as for the way in which they compare and contrast with other items in our collections. Any medium is eligible.
Jurors’ Comments:
Doreen Burbank, Diane Dittemore, Andrew Higgins, Doris and Arnold Roland, and Lynne Spivey: We have long had Cavan Gonzales, great-great grandson of Maria Martinez and son of Barbara Gonzales, on our ‘wish-list’ of potters whose work we want to acquire. Cavan interprets the San Ildefonso polychrome pottery tradition in fresh, bold ways and as well makes black-on-black pottery for which Maria and Julian Martinez are famous. Gonzales has his pieces in major private collections in Germany and across America as well as in the collections of the Heard Museum, the Wheelwright Museum and Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe. Whereas the profile and motifs of this pot are traditional to Cavan’s family, his play of the positive against negative is a contemporary contribution. The squash blossom is an ancient design; but, it also reminds Cavan of a devil’s claw found at the old gardens of San Ildefonso where no one now lives.